On October 1, 2010, the NRC staff began orderly closure of its Yucca Mountain activities. As part of orderly closure, the NRC staff prepared this technical evaluation report (TER), a knowledge management document. This document captures the NRC staff's technical assessment of information presented in DOE's Safety Analysis Report (SAR), dated June 3, 2008, as amended, and supporting information. The TER describes the staff's technical evaluation of the DOE SAR and, in particular, this document (TER Preclosure Volume) provides technical insights on the expected performance of the geologic repository operations area (GROA) during the period of operations (i.e., prior to permanent closure or preclosure period). The TER was developed using the regulations at 10 CFR Part 63 and guidance in the Yucca Mountain Review Plan (YMRP). The TER does not, however, include conclusions as to whether or not DOE satisfies the Commission's regulations.

This "Technical Evaluation Report on the Content of the U.S. Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain License Application; Administrative and Programmatic Volume" (TER Administrative and Programmatic Volume) presents information on the NRC staff's review of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Safety Analysis Report (SAR), provided on June 3, 2008, as updated on February 19, 2009. The NRC staff also reviewed information DOE provided in response to NRC staff requests for additional information and other information that DOE provided related to the SAR. In particular, this report provides information on the NRC staff's evaluation of DOE's proposed administrative and programmatic activities regarding the following: * Research and Development Program to resolve safety questions; * Performance Confirmation Program; * Quality Assurance Program; * Records, reports, tests, and inspections; * DOE organizational structure; * Key positions assigned responsibility for safety and operations; * Personnel qualifications and training; * Plans for startup activities and testing; * Plans for conduct of normal activities; * Emergency planning; * Controls to restrict access and regulate land uses; and * Uses of geologic repository operations area for purposes other than disposal of radioactive wastes.

Public Meltdown describes the public debate around re-licensing the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power plant in Vermont. The plant's initial 40-year license expires in March 2012, and the plant's owner, the Louisiana-based Entergy Corporation requested permission to extend the license for another twenty years. This book describes the debate and ensuing "public meltdown" as plant owners announced leaking tritium and misleading comments.

Provides timely and up-to-date facts, context, perspectives, and tools to make informed decisions about nuclear energy. In the 21st century, nuclear power has been identified as a viable alternative to traditional energy sources to stem global climate change, and condemned as risky to human health and environmentally irresponsible. Do the advantages of nuclear energy outweigh the risks, especially in light of the meltdown at the Fukushima plant in 2011? This guide provides both a comprehensive overview of this critical and controversial technology, presenting reference tools that include important facts and statistics, biographical profiles, a chronology, and a glossary. It covers major controversies and proposed solutions in detail and contains contributions by experts and important stakeholders that provide invaluable perspective on the topic. Surveys five decades of controversy and examines the effects of nuclear disasters Explains why nuclear power is being proposed as an important solution to the problem of global climate change Supplies opinions from experts and advocates regarding the future of the nuclear industry Provides overview information on technical topics such as the nuclear power cycle, from uranium mine to waste storage; and the differences between reactor designs and their associated benefits and risks

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NCR) 2011-2012 Information Digest provides a summary of information about the NRC and the industry it regulates. It describes the agency's regulatory responsibilities and licensing activities and also provides general information on nuclear-related topics.

This report describes eight events that NRC identified as AOs during Fiscal Year (FY) 2010. One event involved radiation exposure to an embryo/fetus. The other seven events occurred at NRC-licensed or regulated medical institutions and are medical events as defined in Title 10, Pt 35, of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR Part 35).

This safety evaluation report (SER) documents the technical review of U.S. Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) Aircraft Impact Assessment (AIA) application by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff.

This second volume identifies and evaluates Cold War residual consequences, especially those related to nuclear weapons and their evolution. It provides a knowledgeable assessment of current risks and future potential of peaceful nuclear technology and inherited nuclear weapons. In this revised edition, a comparative assessment has been included of the nuclear accidents at Fukushima (Japan), Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island reactors. The respective roles of the three volumes in "Nuclear Insights" Volume 1 is a insider history of nuclear weapons development during the Cold War, and Volume 3 is a technically informed perspective about nuclear reductions and arms control. Thus, Volume 2 reports on and examines current nuclear technology, peaceful applications, and proliferation risks. All three volumes are unique, having originated with a written collaboration by four nuclear scientists and engineers, from both sides of the Cold War Iron Curtain, all of whom had hands-on experience with nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors.

Since 1975, a short course entitled "System Safety and Reliability Analysis" has been presented to over 200 NRC personnel and contractors. The course has been taught jointly by David F. Haasl, Institute of System Sciences, Professor Norman H. Roberts, University of Washington, and 'members of the Probabilistic Analysis Staff, NRC, as part of a risk assessment training program sponsored by the Probabilistic Analysis Staff. This handbook has been developed not only to serve as text for the System Safety and Reliability Course, but also to make available to others a set of otherwise undocumented material on fault tree construction and evaluation. The publication of this handbook is in accordance with the recommendations of the Risk Assessment Review Group Report (NUREG/CR-0400) in which it was stated that the fault/event tree methodology both can and should be used more widely by the NRC. It is hoped that this document will help to codify and systematize the fault tree approach to systems analysis.

The news out of Abu Dhabi on Dec. 27, 2009 was the direct motivation to write this book. South Korean consortium has just won the largest single nuclear power plant construction project in recent years to deliver four state-of-the-art Generation III pressurized water reactors to the United Arab Emirates. This book will bring to life the agonizing process of pursuing peaceful nuclear energy in South Korea during the last half-century for the "Atoms for Peace" dream from a poor developing country. Particular focus is placed on the localization process of nuclear power technology since 1980 from an insider's view. This case study on the Korean nuclear power technology could shed some light for other nations as they enter the brave new world of nuclear renaissance. Once on the Silk Road countries like China, India, UAE and Turkey show the most active nuclear power programs together with Japan and Korea today. After all, history repeats itself as new technologies transfer through the Nuclear Silk Road, crossing civilizations.

At present, different concentrating solar thermal technologies (CST) have reached varying degrees of commercial availability. This emerging nature of CST means that there are market and technical impediments to accelerating its acceptance, including cost competitiveness, an understanding of technology capability and limitations, intermittency, and benefits of electricity storage. Many developed and some developing countries are currently working to address these barriers in order to scale up CST-based power generation. Given the considerable growth of CST development in several World Bank Group partner countries, there is a need to assess the recent experience of developed countries in designing and implementing regulatory frameworks and draw lesson that could facilitate the deployment of CST technologies in developing countries. Merely replicating developed countries' schemes in the context of a developing country may not generate the desired outcomes. Against this background, this report (a) analyzes and draws lessons from the efforts of some developed countries and adapts them to the characteristics of developing economies; (b) assesses the cost reduction potential and economic and financial affordability of various CST technologies in emerging markets; (c) evaluates the potential for cost reduction and associated economic benefits derived from local manufacturing; and (d) suggests ways to tailor bidding models and practices, bid selection criteria, and structures for power purchase agreements (PPAs) for CST projects in developing market conditions.|Security sector reform (SSR) is widely recognized as key to conflict prevention, peace-building, sustainable development, and democratization. SSR has gained most practical relevance in the context of post-conflict reconstruction of so-called ""failed states'"" and states emerging from violent internal or inter-state conflict. As this volume shows, almost all states need to reform their security sectors to a greater or lesser extent, according to the specific security, political and socio-economic contexts, as well as in response to the new security challenges resulting from globalization and post-9/11 developments. Alan Bryden is a researcher at the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. Heiner Hnggi is assistant director of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces.

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station and the earthquake that forced the North Anna, VA, nuclear power plant's temporary shutdown have focused attention on the seismic criteria applied to siting and designing commercial nuclear power plants. Some Members of Congress have questioned whether U.S nuclear plants are more vulnerable to seismic threats than previously assessed, particularly given the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) ongoing reassessment of seismic risks at certain plant sites. The design and operation of commercial nuclear power plants operating in the United States vary considerably because most were custom-designed and custom-built. Boiling water reactors (BWRs) directly generate steam inside the reactor vessel. Pressurized water reactors (PWRs) use heat exchangers to convert the heat generated by the reactor core into steam outside of the reactor vessel. U.S. utilities currently operate 104 nuclear power reactors at 65 sites in 31 states; 69 are PWR designs and the 35 are BWR designs. One of the most severe operating conditions a reactor may face is a loss of coolant accident (LOCA), which can lead to a reactor core meltdown. The emergency core cooling system (ECCS) provides core cooling to minimize fuel damage by injecting large amounts of cool water containing boron (borated water slows the fission process) into the reactor coolant system following a pipe rupture or other water loss. The ECCS must be sized to provide adequate makeup water to compensate for a break of the largest diameter pipe in the primary system (i.e., the socalled "double-ended guillotine break" (DEGB)). The NRC considers the DEGB to be an extremely unlikely event; however, even unlikely events can occur, as the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck Fukushima Daiichi proves. U.S. nuclear power plants designed in the 1960s and 1970s used a deterministic statistical approach to addressing the risk of damage from shaking caused by a large earthquake (termed Deterministic Seismic Hazard Analysis, or DSHA). Since then, engineers have adopted a more comprehensive approach to design known as Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA). PSHA estimates the likelihood that various levels of ground motion will be exceeded at a given location in a given future time period. New nuclear plant designs will apply PSHA. In 2008, the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) updated the National Seismic Hazard Maps (NSHM) that were last revised in 2002. USGS notes that the 2008 hazard maps differ significantly from the 2002 maps in many parts of the United States, and generally show 10%-15% reductions in spectral and peak ground acceleration across much of the Central and Eastern United States (CEUS), and about 10% reductions for spectral and peak horizontal ground acceleration in the Western United States (WUS). Spectral acceleration refers to ground motion over a range, or spectra, of frequencies. Seismic hazards are greatest in the WUS, particularly in California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as Alaska and Hawaii. In 2010, the NRC examined the implications of the updated NSHM for nuclear power plants operating in the CEUS, and concluded that NSHM data suggest that the probability for earthquake ground motions may be above the seismic design basis for some nuclear plants in the CEUS. In late March 2011, NRC announced that it had identified 27 nuclear reactors operating in the CEUS that would receive priority earthquake safety reviews.

The earthquake and resulting tsunami that severely damaged Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on March 11, 2011, raised questions in Congress about the accident's possible implications for nuclear safety regulation, U.S. nuclear energy expansion, and radioactive waste policy. This book explores the current nuclear energy issues facing Congress which include federal incentives for new commercial reactors, power plant safety and regulation, radioactive waste management policy, research and development priorities, nuclear weapons proliferation, and security against terrorist attacks.

This book describes how the effects of nature's own nuclear reactors have shaped the Earth, the Solar System, the Universe, and the history of life as we know it. It focuses on observed effects that are poorly explained by our standard theories, identifies certain errors in those theories, and shows how these effects are caused by natural nuclear fission reactors. The theory of Plate Tectonics is wrong, and it is shown that expansion of the Earth causes continental drift. A physically reasonable mechanism is proposed for expansion and observational data are presented to show that this occurs. Evolution is explained as punctuated equilibrium, with mutations caused by abrupt surges of radiation, and related life forms that have been interpreted as seperate species are actually the result of radiation injury. This view is particularly effective as applied to humans. The ability of the dinosaurs to live so large is explained by use of Earth Expansion and a more massive atmosphere to provide buoyancy and effective transpiration of oxygen. These effects also explain how pterodactyls and ancient birds could fly. Expansion induced by impacts at the end of the Cretaceous caused the atmosphere to thin and the dinosaurs collapsed. Analysis of geological and biological data supports this. The astronomical distance scale is shown to be wrong, based on the misconception that trigonometric parallax is an absolute measurement. It isn't, and the method is led astray by the overwhelming number of asteroidal fragments masquerading as stars. The measurements of an expanding Universe are shown to be in error, and an expanding Universe is not needed by an alternative interpretation of Einstein's equations. This interpretation is based on the equal creation of matter and antimatter, which is known to occur. Spiral galaxies are not vast Island Universes of stars as we have thought, but are shown to be the strewn fields of debris from the nuclear fission detonation of distant planets.The Universe is not made up of 96% Dark Matter and Dark Energy, but is instead very ordinary. Abundant evidence and references provide support for all these interpretations. This book opens new opportunities for research by correcting several fundamental errors in our concepts of the Earth, Life, and the Universe.

A pressure vessel can be defined as any container of fluid with a pressure differential between the outside and the inside of the container. Their presence is inevitable in various types of power plants, chemical and process plants. Pressure vessels often have a combination of high pressures together with high temperature operating conditions, and in some cases flammable fluids or highly radioactive materials. Because of such hazards, it is imperative that the design should ensure the states of no-leakage or leak-before-catastrophic break. In addition, these vessels have to be designed carefully to cope with the operating temperature and pressure. This book presents recent advances in the design and usage of pressure vessels and piping components.

This book explores nuclear power plants which stand on the border between humanity's greatest hopes and its deepest fears for the future. Atomic energy offers a clean energy alternative that frees us from the shackles of fossil fuel dependence, while also having lived through the disasters of the quake-ruptured Japanese power plant now spewing radioactive steam, and the dead zone surrounding Chernobyl's concrete sarcophagus. Topics discussed include the investigation of materials and components obtained from nuclear power plants decommissioning; high-temperature gas-cooled reactors; the impact and effects of the ongoing discussion on the nuclear phase-out in Germany; modeling of corrosion product activity in primary circuits of pressurized water reactors and the fundamental stability analysis of hypothetical boiling and pressurized water reactors.

The seismic design criteria applied to sitting commercial nuclear power plants operating in the U.S. received increased attention following the March 11th, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Since the events, some in Congress have begun to question whether U.S. plants are vulnerable to a similar threat, particularly in light of the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions's (NRC)ongoing reassessment of seismic risks at certain plant sites. This book presents some of the general design concepts of operating nuclear power plants in order to discuss design considerations for seismic events.

This document is a supplemental safety evaluation report (SSER) for the license renewal application for Indian Point Nuclear Generating Unit Nos. 2 and 3 (IP2 and IP3) as filed by Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc.

This report provides technical details applicable to access control methods and technologies commonly used to protect facilities licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It contains information on the application, use, function, installation, maintenance, and testing parameters for access control and search equipment and the implementation of protective measures that support access control. This information is intended to assist licensees in designing, installing, employing, and maintaining access control systems at their facilities.

The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) is a fast reactor system developed at Argonne National Laboratory in the decade 1984 to 1994. The IFR project developed the technology for a complete system; the reactor, the entire fuel cycle and the waste management technologies were all included in the development program. The reactor concept had important features and characteristics that were completely new and fuel cycle and waste management technologies that were entirely new developments. The reactor is a "fast" reactor - that is, the chain reaction is maintained by "fast" neutrons with high energy - which produces its own fuel. The IFR reactor and associated fuel cycle is a closed system. Electrical power is generated, new fissile fuel is produced to replace the fuel burned, its used fuel is processed for recycling by pyroprocessing - a new development - and waste is put in final form for disposal. All this is done on one self-sufficient site. The scale and duration of the project and its funding made it the largest nuclear energy R and D program of its day. Its purpose was the development of a long term massive new energy source, capable of meeting the nation's electrical energy needs in any amount, and for as long as it is needed, forever, if necessary. Safety, non-proliferation and waste toxicity properties were improved as well, these three the characteristics most commonly cited in opposition to nuclear power. Development proceeded from success to success. Most of the development had been done when the program was abruptly cancelled by the newly elected Clinton Administration. In his 1994 State of the Union address the president stated that "unnecessary programs in advanced reactor development will be terminated." The IFR was that program. This book gives the real story of the IFR, written by the two nuclear scientists who were most deeply involved in its conception, the development of its R and D program, and its management. Between the scientific and engineering papers and reports, and books on the IFR, and the non-technical and often impassioned dialogue that continues to this day on fast reactor technology, we felt there is room for a volume that, while accurate technically, is written in a manner accessible to the non-specialist and even to the non-technical reader who simply wants to know what this technology is.

This report provides information about designing, installing, testing, maintaining, and monitoring intrusion detection systems (IDSs) and subsystems used for the protection of facilities licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

This supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) documents the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff's analysis and conclusions regarding the environmental impacts of constructing and operating two new nuclear units (Units 3 and 4) at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant (VEGP) site near Waynesboro, Georgia, and the mitigation measures available for reducing or avoiding adverse environmental impacts.